1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention generally relates to devices used to smoke food, and more specifically to devices which use heat-producing blocks, such as charcoal briquettes, to smoke food.
2. Background Information.
Many people enjoy the flavor and taste of smoked foods, in particular, smoked meats. When smoking meat, the process requires a fairly low temperature, such as about 125xc2x0 Fahrenheit, over a long period of time. Few people have a smoker, but many people have a conventional charcoal barbecue grill. The combination of low temperature over a long period of time is hard to achieve in a conventional charcoal barbecue grill, because the charcoal gets too hot and burns up too fast. While such a high heat and quick burning environment is perfect for grilling meats, it is very inappropriate for the smoking of meats. Along with low heat, you also need a steady supply of a wood that gives off a desired flavor, such as mesquite or hickory. This aromatic smoke imparts a smoke flavor to the fish or meat being smoked. However, such wood tends to burn up fast if applied directly to charcoal briquettes, and therefore necessitates having the operator of the grill constantly add small amounts of the aromatic smoking wood on a continual basis to the charcoal grill in order to arrive at a smoking environment.
What is needed is a way to use a conventional charcoal barbecue grill to smoke meats and/or fish. The present invention solves this need.
The present invention is a device for smoking food items. This device is preferably used in the standard charcoal barbecue grill, such as a Weber(copyright) barbecue grill. It may also be used in gas grills. The device uses at least two charcoal briquettes for fuel, with these briquettes arranged so that the adjacent briquettes touch one another. The device also has a generally elongated bar, having a first end which extends to a second end. This bar has at least one longitudinal bend in it, thereby providing a shape. This shape could be any shape desirable by the manufacturer or user of the device, including simple shapes where the bend simply bends the first end back towards the second end so that a U-shaped shape is formed with the bend defining a bar first portion and bar second portion with a channel defined as the area between the first portion and the second portion. Many other shapes are contemplated including (but not limited to) the circular spirals, triangular spirals, rectangular spirals, and other shapes. Within the channel will be located the charcoal briquettes placed in an end-to-end fashion. The device also has a charcoal briquette supporting means. The support means can be a separate grated surface, or could be an appendage of the bar itself, so long as the charcoal briquettes placed in the channel are supported from falling through the channel.
Thus in use, the charcoal briquettes are placed in the channel upon the charcoal briquette supporting means, and the device is placed within the typical barbecue grill shell with a grilling surface located above the device. Then the user of the device would light one of the charcoal briquettes, preferably one of the charcoal briquettes located on the end of the end-to-end line of charcoal briquettes. This charcoal briquette would burn, and at a certain point, would ignite the adjacent charcoal briquette(s). This adjacent charcoal briquette would then burn, and eventually ignite the charcoal briquette adjacent to it, so that a minimal number of charcoal briquettes would be lit and burning at any time, and would continually ignite additional briquettes as the fire burned over time. This results in the effect of having a low temperature, long burning, consistent burning fire ideal for the smoking of meat and fish.
A second channel is also preferably located attached adjacent to the first channel, this second channel for holding chips of a smoke-producing material or wood, such as hickory or mesquite wood. Thus, as the fire burns through and along the first channel, the second channel which is adjacent parallel to the first channel will be exposed to the heat of the burning charcoal and will release smoke as the burning of the charcoal briquettes in the first channel takes place.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description wherein I have shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by carrying out my invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of modification in various obvious respects all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description of the preferred embodiment are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.